Chapter 340: Selling fish requires teaming up

The sun rose, and the air temperature rose slightly. Li Long finished with this batch, straightened his back, and looked around; there were still not many people.

The first batch of fish buyers were quite satisfied with the fish. After all, they had been specially selected—they were large, relatively uniform in size, with no small ones, and they looked good.

But the number of people was still a bit low. It took over half an hour to sell one bag of fish, and a few were still left.

Li Long knew he was actually being a bit greedy. In the past, he always brought two bags of fresh fish to sell, and at that time, the fish were jumping around, which was pleasant to look at. Now they were frozen fish; although they looked quite nice, they certainly weren't as good as fresh fish.

Moreover, selling most of this bag could be considered a small harvest. It's just that at this rate, it wasn't certain that these ten bags of fish would be sold in a day.

He was a bit worried; it wasn't quite what he had imagined.

Did he come too early? Should he come back after some time?

He took another bag of fish down from the cart, poured it onto the plastic sheet, separated the fish that were frozen together, arranged them neatly, and continued to call out.

Seventy-Six felt the cart shake, raised its head from grazing, turned to look at Li Long, and then turned back to lower its head and graze.

Li Long rested for a while. When a long-distance bus arrived and the passengers got off, he immediately called out loudly again.

This call attracted quite a few people. They surrounded the stall, looking at the fish, pointing and picking. Anyway, since the fish were already frozen, Li Long wasn't afraid of them finding any problems. He would weigh whatever they wanted. The fish were cheap, and these people were quite happy. One bag of fish wasn't enough, so Li Long hurriedly took down another bag and poured it onto the stall for the customers to pick through.

Just like that, over half an hour passed. By the time the people had basically dispersed, a bag and a half of fish had been sold, and the speed had clearly increased quite a bit.

Some people were closing their stalls, rolling up their mats, and carrying their baskets over to Li Long's place. These people had made money and also wanted to buy a fish to take back and stew for their families to eat.

"This fish is really good, it's just that it has a lot of bones." One person bought a five-striped black fish and said while putting it into their basket.

"Then I'll bring some pork to sell in two days." Li Long joked, "I see there aren't many people selling meat in this market."

"If you can bring meat, then there will definitely be a lot of buyers." That stall owner was about to leave with their basket but stopped in their tracks, "Someone came to sell pork two days ago, it was also frozen meat, and it sold out in less than an hour. In this cold winter, basically everyone has a little money in their hands, and there are quite a few who want to buy meat. If you can bring a pig, it will sell very quickly!"

"That's right, do you have any pigs at home? If you do, slaughter them in the next two days. They won't gain any fat in the winter, it's a waste of feed." Another person chimed in.

"Alright, I'll slaughter a pig and bring it over in the next two days." Li Long said with a smile, "I have several pigs at home."

"That would be great, I'll be waiting."

After the people left, two market management personnel came over and collected one yuan in management fees from Li Long.

Li Long didn't argue with them; his stall was large, occupying the space of two or three stalls, so it was only right to pay a bit more.

Just now, with nearly three bags of fish sold, he had nearly one hundred yuan in hand. Excluding the cost of the fish, not counting his own labor and the horse's effort, he had made a net profit of sixty or seventy yuan, which was very good.

Next, whenever Li Long waited for a bus to unload passengers, he would call out a few times to attract people over. Often, when a wave of people came, they could buy away half a bag to a full bag of fish.

In the morning, the sun rose, and it became much warmer. There were more people in the market, and one could see many local old men and women who didn't need to work, as well as some housewives, walking around buying things they wanted.

At this time, Li Long didn't need to call out; the people in front of the stall never stopped. By nearly one o'clock in the afternoon, the last few fish were bought out by a person who claimed to be running a small restaurant.

Li Long was a bit puzzled. Are private restaurants allowed to be opened now?

That person smiled and said, actually, it doesn't count as opening one; they just cook at home, there are many rooms in the courtyard, and there are regular people who come to eat, so that's fine.

Li Long was relieved. This restaurant was different from that milk tea shop. After all, there are ethnic policies here, and there is still a good understanding of the rigid demand of these ethnic minority masses who make naan and sell milk tea.

But at this time, basically all the places to eat outside were state-run restaurants; private restaurants were still rare, or rather, just starting.

It would slowly open up.

After selling the fish, Li Long let out a long breath and packed up the stall. Only then did he feel hungry and cold.

He led the horse cart to the milk tea shop. The Uyghur young man, Ke Youmu, poked his head out from inside with a smile:

"Old fellow, I saw you a long time ago. You've really done something big this time! Pulling a horse cart to sell fish, you must have made quite a bit of money today, right?"

"It's alright, it's alright." Every time Li Long heard Ke Youmu's Yudong accent, paired with his pure Uyghur face, he really felt it was very festive and wanted to laugh.

After tying up the horse and carrying a bag of things containing the scale into the milk tea shop, Li Long said:

"A bowl of milk tea, a naan, add some honey. Do you have jam?"

"Yes, I do. It was newly harvested this year, brought by my friends in the mountains. They said the wild fruits in the mountains this year are very good—"

Ke Youmu very nimbly brought Li Long the naan, served the milk tea, and poured honey, jam, butter, and such into several small dishes separately.

"Sigh, you really know how to eat. This butter tastes very good, it's just that most Han people aren't used to it. I see you're eating it quite happily."

"That's right, I have friends in the mountains too." Li Long said with a smile, "Butter, mare's milk, I can get used to these things."

"You can even get used to mare's milk? That's really not ordinary!" Ke Youmu looked at Li Long in surprise, "Most people aren't used to that." "It's sour, a little bit bitter, sometimes you have to add a little sugar, but it's good for the stomach." Li Long tore off a piece of naan, dipped it in some honey, and said while eating.

"I see the market is quite quiet recently." Li Long looked outside, and while looking at the horse cart, he was also looking at the market, "Nothing causing trouble."

"Hey! You don't know yet." Ke Youmu saw there were no other customers, so he moved a stool and sat next to Li Long, whispering, "It's not that simple. A batch was caught a few days ago. Those little hooligans were very annoying. They would collect money and cause trouble at every stall when the management personnel weren't around. Many stalls didn't dare to come."

"It only got better after the management came and took some away. But I heard that even if they are taken away, they won't be locked up for many days; they'll be released in ten days or so."

Li Long thought to himself that if that was the case, then he really had to let his second brother, brother-in-law, and the others come together later, and they would have to bring tools. Otherwise, if one or two people came, it would just be sending money to others.

When the time comes, would it be better to bring a gun or some cold weapons?

Using a gun here is a bit against the rules, right?

Forget it, getting some sticks or something should be enough. Four strong young men, even if they run into seven or eight hooligans, should be able to resist for a while.

It seems he still has to come less often.

After eating, Li Long paid the money, greeted Ke Youmu, went out to put the bag on the horse cart, untied the rope, and led the horse cart, preparing to leave the market. Then he stopped.

He saw a pile of horse manure behind the cart. It must have been what Seventy-Six just dropped.

!.

He felt a bit embarrassed, turned around to tie the reins again, and then went into the milk tea shop.

Ke Youmu saw Li Long come back and thought he had dropped something, so he looked at where he was sitting. Li Long hurriedly said:

"Let me use your broom, my horse dropped some manure outside your shop..."

"Hahahaha, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. I'll sweep it when I'm free." Ke Youmu waved his hand, "You hurry up and go, it will take another two hours to get back, don't worry about it, don't worry about it. I'll clean it up myself."

Li Long didn't see the broom, so he had to apologize awkwardly and turn to leave. It seems that next time he pulls the horse cart over, he has to bring a broom or something to clean up the horse manure. If it were on the main road outside, it wouldn't be anything, but in the market, Li Long still felt a bit ashamed.

After leaving the old street and turning north for a few hundred meters, he got onto the main road. Cars would pass by on the Wuyi Highway from time to time. This roadbed was a two-lane road, but the range pressed out by the passing cars was only one and a half lanes wide. Li Long occasionally had to lead the horse cart into the snow to wait for large trucks to pass before walking back onto the main road.

When he was about to reach the Mahe River Bridge, there was an old man with a hunched back carrying a bag moving slowly forward. When Li Long's horse cart reached him, he saw it was an old man from the side profile, so Li Long stopped the horse cart and said to the person:

"Old fellow, where are you going?"

"To Liangzhouhu." The person stopped and turned his head. It was an old man in his sixties with a dark face, wearing a not-very-thick cotton hat on his head. The hat brim and the old man's face and beard were all covered in white fuzz; this was the breath he exhaled freezing and forming.

Liangzhouhu is the name of another township in the county, before the county seat, not far away.

"Then get on the cart." Li Long pointed to the back of his horse cart, "I'll give you a ride for a stretch. I can take you to the intersection of Liangzhouhu."

"That would be great." The old man smiled, "Thank you, little fellow."

"What's there to thank, get on the cart."

Li Long waited for the old man to get on the cart and continued driving the horse cart forward. The old man asked:

"Are you going to the old street to sell things? Was this cart originally carrying fish?"

"Yes, yes, I took some fish over to sell."

"Then you must have sold quite a lot. Are you... from over at Hongqi?" The old man looked frail, but his thinking was very agile, asking, "A while ago, it was said that a reservoir over there was drained, and the fish inside became like a sea. Is this...?"

"Yes, yes, it's that place." Li Long hadn't expected that the news of fish in the big sea would spread so far in this era.

"My village has a daughter who married over there," the old man explained with a smile, "When she returned to her maiden home, she brought a bag of fish, which really surprised us."

Li Long remembered that Liangzhouhu later developed fruit planting vigorously, with many peach orchards. Later, some people from Wucheng drove here to buy peaches.

The land here is relatively small, and the characteristic planting is done quite well.

The journey of two people is always more lively than one. Chatting and chatting, they arrived at the county.

Li Long let the old man off at the intersection and then led the horse cart away. When he walked back to the large courtyard and unloaded the cart, he discovered that there were a few sweet potatoes on the horse cart.

This must have been put there by the old man. Li Long hurriedly took this back into the room, not knowing if it had been frozen or not. Based on the experience of two lifetimes, sweet potatoes are still very afraid of freezing.

If they weren't frozen, Li Long thought about keeping one until spring, so he could raise some seedlings to plant sweet potatoes. Although Li Jianguo had eaten too many and didn't like them, others liked to eat them.

Like himself.

In the afternoon, Li Long returned to the village—business is important. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 341 =====